Best Ways to Save Energy

This post on the Best Ways to Save Energy was originally seen on Mapawatt. The goal is to provide homeowners a reference page that will help guide them to things they can do and incentives they can earn for saving energy.

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What are the best ways to save energy? It’s a topic that we’ve been wondering a lot about. The best ways to save energy for someone in Alaska are probably going to be much different from someone living in Southern California (mainly for heating and cooling reasons). But some tips (like changing incandescent bulbs to CFL or LED) work no matter where you live, because everybody uses light.

Before you start saving energy, you may need to get a better understand of just what energy is. If you’re an energy noob, start with:

Once you gain an understanding of what energy is, you are better equipped to understand your utility bill and how to get the numbers on that bill to go down!

Cheap, Quick, and Easy Energy Saving Tips We have put together a free energy saving guide that you can download if you register for the Mapawatt Newsletter (or purchase for $2.99 from Amazon). The title of the guide is 5 Cheap, Quick and Easy Energy Saving Tips. As the title implies, it covers low or no cost strategies users can employ that won’t take too much time or effort. A summary of that guide can be seen below:

If you’ve already conquered the cheap, quick and easy strategies, you may need to move to the next level. We covered a free energy saving guide that Southface Institute put together, that is a great guide for DIY projects. Other things you can do:

Home Energy Audit

Upgrading Insulation

More efficient heating and cooling system

Clean Energy

If you’ve done all you can for Energy Conservation (not using energy) and Energy Efficiency (using less energy to do the same amount of work), you may be ready for the third step, Clean Energy. Clean energy systems, like Solar PV panels or Wind Turbines, will help you produce your own clean energy, which will lower the amount of energy you need to buy from your utility. The different types of residential clean energy producing systems are (and the type of energy they produce):

Solar PV (electricity)

Solar Thermal (heat)

Wind Turbine (electricity)

Biomass (electricity and heat)

Micro-hydro water turbine (electricity)

Natural Gas Fuel Cell (electricity and heat)

Incentives

If you have done all the energy saving activities you can do that don’t cost you money, you might have to consider spending some money to save some more energy. If you are going to do that, you want to make sure to take advantage of all the incentives that are available. In our post on finding energy incentives we mentioned the following types of incentives

Tax Deduction

Tax Credit

Rebate

Free audit

Grant

Loan

Discounts

Financing

If you are planning major energy improvements, you may need to finance your energy saving investment.

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Chris, thank you for posting this informative blog. To add to the comment made by Gjorevski, energy efficient replacement windows can reduce heating and cooling bills (and, of course, conserve energy) regardless of the type of climate. They'll help to keep the heat outside of your home when the temperatures are high, but conversely will keep the heat inside your home when it's cold outside. Triple Pane windows are an even better option, since they provide maximum energy-efficiency. Thanks again for these helpful tips!

After i changed windows last year and put insulation on one wall of my house (the one on north side), I noticed drastic energy saving - especially in winter when temperatures can be as low as -25 below zero.

Chris,
I always tell people to program their thermostats. And then repeat it over and over. Most people may program them once, then forget to ever adjust it. Staying on top of a home's programmable thermostat is probably the single biggest thing a homeowner can do to lower their energy consumption. Thoughts?

What have you found to be the most effective of all these strategies. I see and hear so many different results, and there's never any one thing can be said works for every home. They're all different with their own conditions. A house may be tight, but have poor windows. And, vice versa.

So, just wondering what others are seeing as the most beneficial energy saving strategy (at least, on average)